You know that I experiment, with fibers, thick and thin, as well as with weaves. Sometimes they 'work', sometimes not so much. I know that one can't learn without trial and error but I sure would like to shorten the learning curve!

With the aid of Synthepol (?), I did manage to wash and dry my red and white bathmats/towels without the dreaded pink. But the red had significant excess dye in it. So, lesson 1, wash red cotton thread before warping and weaving with it, or don't combine it with white.

As I said at Guild, mop cotton does not shrink nearly as much as one would hope for a particular hand/grist, and the fiber is not as absorbent as expected. Yet it takes forever to dry. Washed, it is not as soft as I desired. Lesson 2, use of mop cotton requires more thought. Maybe I will relegate it to rug filler only.

Loose ends, when adding a new piece of thread/yarn to an old end, are tough to entwine or overlap than other fibers and thread. They poke/peek/sneak up and out of the warp unless one is doing a really really really tight weave (like covering mop with rep warp). Lesson 3, longer overlap than believe warranted, and trim.

Lesson 4, hem stitch may not hold, regardless of size of thread used. One of the woven and stitched hems unraveled in a couple of places during washing and drying. Drat, reworked hem with sewing machine, no longer a piece I would gift but practical for home use.

End of today's lesson. Hopefully Guild members will share their insights, if they work out of the comfort zone.

The rest of the story: after washing and drying (hot hot hot) this piece designed as a table runner was re-imagined as a bathmat and finally settled down as a wonderful pillow cover with a soft feel, absorbent quality, and nice look.

Reply

Maggy

9/17/2017 09:06:59 pm

I'm about to hemstitch a scarf, and I had a question about the durability of hemstitches. For one thing, how short can I cut the fringe? It seems like people are saying to go as short as you want, but does that mean it still needs at least an inch? And if I do cut it short and want to hem it on a machine, where to I place the seam? On the hemstitch itself, or before it? Thank you for your time!